I Reviewed Fire Music

It's a 2021 documentary on the Criterion Channel... at least until the last day of the year: 

This “fire music” is free jazz, i.e. avant-garde jazz. Before this leaves the Criterion Channel after the 31st, this had to be viewed. My musical tastes are “many different genres… almost all of it 10 years or older”; the modern stuff is of no interest to me. That includes jazz; there’s plenty from that genre I like—it ranges from a century ago through Charlie Parker, the bop era, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson and plenty of other names. I do like Davis and Hancock both in traditional jazz and their fusion albums.

I also dig some from free jazz and the masters like Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, and others; of course, some of it is too far out there for even my standards, but full respect to them.

It's a standard documentary (aside from some trippy visuals, apparently from Stan Brakhage and others, according to a mutual… those suddenly go away, never to return) where various figures connected w/ the old free jazz movement were interviewed; the big figures were mentioned, NYC as the epicenter was mentioned, vintage footage of the greats was shown, the music’s polarizing nature was made patently clear.

A few niggles here and there could be made; the biggest fault for me is my own curiosity. A feature-length documentary could have been done on the likes of Coleman, Coltrane, Don Cherry, and especially Sun Ra. Ra was so eccentric, he was a dude who claimed to be from Saturn… in the 1950’s! His entire essence (let alone his music) was so out-there, it’d be fascinating to learn about a proponent of Afrofuturism who wore Egyptian-style outfits.

The end credits revealed this to be a Kickstarter project; it is an explanation for its occasional rough around the edges style. Be that as it may, the spotlight on many different figures in that field was appreciated; even I learned of people new to me. The percentage of those reading this that possess even a small amount of interest in jazz is presumably low. Even so, for my edification, I was happy to learn some new facts.